Seam Welding..... worth it?

[crazy_ugly_coyote]

So is it worth it to seam weld your car up?

[tonysenese]

If you are gonna race in a class that allows this, it is pretty much required to get the maximum stiffness from your unibody. All the Grand Am and ALMS street type cars do it. That said, almost no one does this at the club racing level, and it would be pretty crazy for auto-x, time trial, or HPDE.

 

At our level, the driver makes the biggest difference in competitive classes unless you are coming in 2nd every race, worry about race craft, and seat time.

 

Tony Senese

SM Director

NASA NE

[Driver]

and it would be pretty crazy for auto-x, time trial, or HPDE.

...unless it's an old worn out car. Over time, the car's joints can get a bit tired. If you've got the time and don care about the points (where applicable), I'd recomend it. Some cars, noted for crappy production, practically require it just to make for a satisfactory street vehicle. I've heard that, sometime in the 80s, GM let the presses go a little longer than they should (not wanting to invest tooling maintinence), and the result was a sizeable pack Camaro's having body components that fit poorly together.

[6SPEED84Z28]

depends on the car. i did it on my street car which is an 84 Z28 with t tops. it made a world of difference. way more than the subframe connectors ever did. it cut the rattles by over half and is definately a more solid car to drive. i only did a couple of seams and i could do more.